Growing up on the East Coast, I developed a passion to surf that is now extremely hard to live without. In my hometown of Lynnfield, Massachusetts, there is a lot of coast but not much wake. Throughout my life I have had to endure the fact that I am not always able to go surfing and had to find a hobby similar to it to keep me occupied.
My entire life I have lived in a house right next to the ocean. Since I was young, I have had a love for the ocean and everything that it has to offer. Fishing, surfing, and skim boarding have always been some of my major hobbies. I was even able to turn my passion for fishing into a job by becoming a full time lobster-man. During the summer I had to wake up extremely early every morning to go out on the boat and learn how to efficiently utilize my time on the water and get the most fish possible.
Almost every day after work if it was a nice summer day I would pull my boat in, grab my skim board, and head down to the beach. Skim boarding is different from surfing due to the fact you stay at the water’s edge that just meets the sand. When surfing, you paddle way out and try to catch a wave forming in the current. When skim boarding, you look for smaller waves crashing on the surface of the sand and open flat waterways that you can rip right through. The more open smooth water you have the longer you can stay on your board. To get on, you have to sprint down the beach then throw your board so it glazes across the water and then you hop on it while its moving. While this may seem like a hard concept, once you get the hang of it can easily become a passion.
When people talk about which is harder, surfing or skim boarding, it all depends on what your preference is and how big the waves are. If there is a storm on the North Shore, then the waves will be big due to the eruption of the water making the rip current stronger than usual. This is good for fast surfing and big waves. It is not ideal to go skim boarding when there is a storm due to the rugged waves and the difficulty to find an open flat surface to skim across. In surfing, rough conditions are better but when it comes to skim boarding you want a little more of a calm sunny day.
A lot of people who have never done either say that they would rather learn how to skim board than surf due to the fact that you don’t need to know how to swim to skim board. Also when it comes to surfing, some people instantly think of sharks; but that’s a whole other discussion. Like anything in life, you need to build a passion for something in order to actually become good at it. In the end I love both these activities and I would highly recommend trying them to anyone who loves the beach and warm weather.
